MTG Salvation

Whew!!! Excellent job again!

I played 2 Veil of Summer and a Fry at Monday Modern last night. Beat Grixis Control, Abzan, and 5c Niv 2-0 each, and lost to Jund 0-2. Never boarded in Fry, and although I had Veil in for 3 of the 4 matchups, I never saw it.

But I had an interesting G2 against Niv. I had a Steam Vents, Stomping Ground, and Island in play, plus a flipped Delver and an unlevelled Hexdrinker. Opponent was at 11. I attacked for 5 with 2 Bolts, Opt, Snare, and Force in hand. On his upkeep, I cast Bolt, he responds with Helix on the Delver. I Snare it. He responds with Veil of Summer, so I Force pitching the Opt, then Bolt him for lethal. Just a sweet play.

Reid Duke had a good article on Veil the other day.

Quote from Reid Duke »

The best home in Modern would be green combo decks like Scapeshift, Neoform, Infect, and Collected Company. As a Jund player, I’m not looking forward to having my discard spells met by Veil of Summer. It’s a devastating trap, and it feels practically unavoidable. Holding up a single green mana is such a low cost to pay. And besides, discard spells are usually the way to sniff out a trap and make sure the coast is clear! Now, your best cards against opposing combo decks turn into devastating two-for-one exchanges in the opponent’s favor.

While we're not a combo deck, I think we're trying to do something similar to Infect or Company by protecting an important creature.

What are you playing these days, Jordan? Are you still on Mandrills, or have you migrated to Hexdrinker or Mongoose? For what it's worth, I'm super pleased with roughly 56/60 of my main deck right now, and while it's hard to say we're well-positioned, I think we have gotten some important tools in these last few sets.

I will say that while Jund was never easy, Wrenn and Six has made it that much more difficult. That card is a house against us. Pings our dudes, drowns us in card advantage. It even makes the Blood Moon plan pretty sketchy postboard.

What do you think about a 4c Delver deck in Modern?

I think Coatl is much more of a defensive card and doesn't fit with the plan here. I also think 4c Delver is just a bad hybrid of Delver and Snow Control, each of which are fine decks. It works in Legacy because they can flip Delver and it can be a threat, whereas Delver is pretty underpowered as a control finisher in Modern.

But you should absolutely try it out and let us know what works and doesn't. Astrolabe and Coatl are powerful cards, and access to black would solve many problems, though it opens up others.

4 Color Delver decks have never perked my interests because of the severe life loss that comes along with it as well as the clumsy mana base. I love Ice-Fang Coatl, but not in a Delver build as it's too defensive, as mentioned by MikePemulis above. Yes, you get access to a wide variety of removal spells with the addition of black/white mana, but I feel the deck itself becomes too diluted and less focused because of it. If we ever need black mana for removal because the meta has shifted so drastically towards it then possibly going BUG would be an option?

Quick question before I go to the Modern tournament tomorrow, but has anyone tested Wrenn and Six? I was debating if they would be a better fit than Young Pyromancer out of the sideboard, but I don't want to sink the money into the card until it either settles down in price or if it is a massive upgrade to our deck.

Quote from MikePemulis »

What are you playing these days, Jordan? Are you still on Mandrills, or have you migrated to Hexdrinker or Mongoose? For what it's worth, I'm super pleased with roughly 56/60 of my main deck right now, and while it's hard to say we're well-positioned, I think we have gotten some important tools in these last few sets.

I will say that while Jund was never easy, Wrenn and Six has made it that much more difficult. That card is a house against us. Pings our dudes, drowns us in card advantage. It even makes the Blood Moon plan pretty sketchy postboard.

I'm on this. Wrenn and Six is great in this kind of strategy IMO, just have to build around it a bit.

I'll be testing Wrenn and Six in a week and a half. Very optimistic. They shore up two hard matchups: go wide aggro and the decks that force a longer game. Am going to try a pair to start, replacing probably a Tarfire and a Vapor Snag to start.

Meanwhile, I went 4-1 in a league with this:



Same as my paper deck, except the Traps are Surgicals in paper. Here's what I said in the Discord:

Round 1: Lost to E Tron 1-2. I cast Moon and cut myself off green early, had some Bolts and a Force for the inevitable planeswalkers, but after surviving the first two little Ugins, I lost to the Karn I didn't have an answer for. Actually, I lost to the Expedition Map that found him Wastes to unlock his hand. Rough matchup.

Round 2: Beat Scales 2-0. I think this is secretly one of our better matchups. Forced an Animation Module G1 backed up by pressure and Bolts to clear the way for Goyf. G2 I kept 2 lands,, Abrade, Return to Earth, EE, Bolt, and Tarfire, figuring I'd run opponent out of threats and find one soon. Worked great. Goyf and an EE on 0 held off a huge Hangarback Walker while Hexdrinker got ulted and swung uncontested for the last 6.

Round 3: Beat Rock 2-1. Had a grindy G1, but as always, their Goyfs are just better than ours. And the card I lost to was Spawn of Mayhem, of all things. Opponent must have been trying it as a random 4 drop in the spot they usually use for Kalitas. Flample is real. G2, they discarded a Hexdrinker and Goyf, but I had a third one and they flooded out. They Field of Ruined my red source, I Bolted down to 6, and they scooped. Prematurely, to me, but whatever. G3 I kept 2 lands, 2 Delvers, and a Hexdrinker. Delver flipped early and lived, I Bolted a Scooze and Leaked another, and after I got a Goyf out, they scooped when I flashed in a naked Snapcaster to eat a Liliana edict. Untap, attack, Bolt for lethal.

Round 4: Beat UW 2-1. G1 I didn't have enough disruption for their stuff, and they ended up with a flipped Search, Narset, and Jace ticking up. Drew lands, even when shuffling after the Jace activation, and scooped in the interest of time. G2 was quicker, when I got down a Delver that flipped T3, hit twice before eating a Path. Veil of Summer was huge here, forcing a Goyf through a Mana Leak or Spell Snare. Narset was quite good for me, too. G3 was more of the same, except Veil just cycled in response to Snap-Path. Punted a thing: opponent has two Snaps out, I've got a Goyf and a Narset. They swing to put me lower on life than they were and cast Timely. I had 2 Bolts and could've basically countered it. Fry was great as it tagged a Baneslayer. I won with the one Tarfire I left in after a Path I couldn't answer.

Round 5: Beat Jund 2-1. G1 I just got Junded. Seems to happen at least once a round against this deck, where they Thoughtseize your most important card, Push your threat, and land Liliana uncontested. G2 I don't much remember, but it was over when I flashed in a naked Snapcaster to eat the Liliana edict (apparently a favorite play against BGx) and swung back with a Bolt to the face. G3 was similar, except it involved me countering an Abrupt Decay with Veil of Summer. More than anywhere else, that card is great here. It's good against UW but it's straight up Cryptic Command here.

I'm going to trim a Vapor Snag and something else to try out a pair of Wrenn and Six in paper in a week and a half, but overall I've had really good luck with this list. I'm 13-8 in matches I've paid for, both paper and this league, and a lot of that is dragged down by an awful night at the LGS where I went 0-4, including the hugest combat math punt of my Modern career. The point is: the deck feels like it has some legs.

Oof, another 1-2 night. Reverted back to Mandrills, but since I cracked a Hexdrinker, I decided to run one just to see how it played if I drew it. I did a 3/3 split of Shoal/Force, bringing back in two Stubborn Denials, and I added an extra Vapor Snag after my GDS match last week. The 3/3 Split felt really nice. I only ever drew/cast Hexdrinker once, and it ended up getting bounced by a thing after leveling to 3.



Match 1 vs. Burn (0-2)
I though I should have better odds against burn, not entirely sure what cards I'm looking for. I didn't get a good creature to stick - my Delver in game 1 was removed. The pitch spells were nice, but the card disadvantage really hurt. I brought in Cindervines and Weather the Storm, never drew them. The match ended quick so I pulled out my own burn deck and won the mirror in a casual match.

Match 2 vs. UB Mill (2-1)
Game 1 he milled me out but I put up a real fight, he was down to 2 life. Next 2 games I won by pacing my spells and really biding my time to remove his big mill cards. Brought in Cindervines and Surgicals for this one - felt good to counter a Archive Trap them surgical it from the deck. Fun games. I really wanna try out Veil of Summer in the SB now, since I've played this guy 3 different times now.

Match 3 vs. Izzet Phoenix (1-2)
I was playing with an opponent who was new to modern, it was his first night piloting the deck. I let him do a few plays over as he was also new to Magic. I could have won based on his poor sequencing, but I always want my opponents to play as well as possible so I let him take a few things back when he didn't understand the rules fully. They were very close games. I now know what I'm looking to counter. I sided in Surgicals, Weather the Storm, and Cindervines for this, never drew into any of them. I think I can beat Phoenix next time, but I also wanna try out Fry in the SP to deal with Things, though Vapor Snag did a great job bouncing them before the flip triggered.

How do people SB and play against Burn and Phoenix? Curious to get other perspectives.

No basilisk collar against Burn? That card is nuts against them.
A good plan is to shoal or kill their turn one creature, fetch for basics, land a blocker and look for all the counters you have to gain time to stabilize as they end the cards in hand. Then you land the second creature and you can attack for the win. It seems easy, it really isn't actually but we are slightly favoured. I'd like to bring moon against them if they are heavy on W or WG (you lock them out of helixes, charms, paths and RiP from side). Don't hesitate to bring out a couple of serum since you don't have time to cantrip against them.

I find Burn to be a little stressful. If they're on the creature plan, you want a Goyf asap. You always want counters. I let through pretty much all Lava Spikes unless they're lethal, and try to counter any Searing Blaze blowouts and Helix if I can help it.

Eidolon is really rough on us and difficult to beat once resolved.

Quote from Mikefon »

No basilisk collar against Burn? That card is nuts against them.

I forgot I did bring in Collar. I even equipped it to my flipped delver and got in one swing, but then Delver got removed and I lost. I think I just need to pace myself better and focus on running them out of gas.

However, i am still struggling with finding a well balanced sideboard that is versatile in my meta. My LGS has a diverse meta with a good blend of petdecks and Tier 1 decks. Haven't seen much dredge lately, nor Humans/Spirits (The UB Mill guy is sometimes of Spirits). There are a bunch of Phoenix-based decks, CoCo value decks, UW Control, GDS, Jund, Burn, and Tron-based decks including Eldrazi. Someone brought Hollow One last week, hadn't seen that in a while.

I'm thinking about this SB plan for next week:



I had been running two Hazorets, but she seems to have a limited application, I'd mostly bring her in against Eldrazi decks, so I think I can cut her down to 1 copy. Collar is versatile so I don't want to remove it. Weather the Storm is the card I'm most iffy about. It's helped out against Burn and Phoenix decks, but I'm wondering if Collar and Cindervines isn't enough.

The discord link didn’t work, can I get it again?

Here it is: https://discord.gg/az5NdDz

Quote from ashtonkutcher »

Quote from MikePemulis »

What are you playing these days, Jordan? Are you still on Mandrills, or have you migrated to Hexdrinker or Mongoose? For what it's worth, I'm super pleased with roughly 56/60 of my main deck right now, and while it's hard to say we're well-positioned, I think we have gotten some important tools in these last few sets.

I will say that while Jund was never easy, Wrenn and Six has made it that much more difficult. That card is a house against us. Pings our dudes, drowns us in card advantage. It even makes the Blood Moon plan pretty sketchy postboard.

I'm on this. Wrenn and Six is great in this kind of strategy IMO, just have to build around it a bit.

Putteman's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures (15) 4 Wild Nacatl 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Tarmogoyf 2 Hooting Mandrills 1 Snapcaster Mage Planeswalkers (3) 3 Wrenn and Six Artifacts (2) 2 Mishra’s Bauble Instants (14) 4 Path to Exile 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Mutagenic Growth 2 Spell Pierce 2 Mana Leak Sorceries (9) 4 Serum Visions 3 Light Up the Stage 2 Faithless Looting	Lands (17) 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Wooded Foothills 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Temple Garden 1 Steam Vents 1 Stomping Ground 1 Hallowed Fountain 1 Breeding Pool 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Forest 1 Island	Sideboard (15) 2 Damping Sphere 1 Engineered Explosives 1 Rest in Peace 1 Surgical Extraction 2 Huntmaster of the Fells 1 Hazoret the Fervent 1 Snapcaster Mage 2 Pyroclasm 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Destructive Revelry 1 Veil of Summer 1 Fry

When do we want Hazoret? I'm on Counter-Cat too, but I feel that I don't like him that much. Sure, he's fine as a topdeck when we are empty handed in grindier matchups, but he is also a 4 mana creatures that just dies to the most common removal spell in the format (path).

I'm with you on Hazoret. It's great against Jund and Rock, but very marginal against the Celestial Colonnade decks, and outside of those matchups, I never found myself bringing it in.

I think Hexdrinker does everything you want against the grindy matchups, but is also very solid in the linear matchups. And you can play 4 of them, and cast them starting turn 1. Hexdrinker has totally changed how the UWx matchups play, and so I don't find myself wanting that extra creature threat from the board. Instead, I'm playing a Narset as a different angle of attack that also has utility against Phoenix, Storm, etc.

Non-Path, non-combo decks just lose to Hazoret. Examples include Shadow, Hollow One, and Jund. It's also good as a closer when you are forced into a midrange role post-board. And I do think it's nice vs UWx decks; sure they can remove it if Path is handy, but nothing we have access to is better at sniping planeswalkers.

Fry is definitely better at killing walkers. Obviously it's narrow, but it does that job plus acts as hardnosed removal for Humans, Thing, and Spirits, too.

Have you played with Hexdrinker? I find it just replaces all the 4cmc threats we've all played in the board, and is something we want anyway as a 1 cmc threat. Off the top in a grindy game, it just wins. But you can also cast it early and chip in for damage, and they have to deal with it before it levels out of control.

Quote from MikePemulis »

Fry is definitely better at killing walkers. Obviously it's narrow, but it does that job plus acts as hardnosed removal for Humans, Thing, and Spirits, too.

Have you played with Hexdrinker? I find it just replaces all the 4cmc threats we've all played in the board, and is something we want anyway as a 1 cmc threat. Off the top in a grindy game, it just wins. But you can also cast it early and chip in for damage, and they have to deal with it before it levels out of control.

I haven't, but based on what I've seen here it seems pretty good. Must be hard to have it die to Wrenn though.